Roman Polanski
Repulsion

"Madness is frightening because you know that you come to yourself"

The full quote of this phrase, taken from an interview given by Roman Polanski in 1969, is a must when, as in this case, analyzing a masterful example of the so-called "cinema of fear." It came to mind after reading, a few days ago on Debaser, an interesting review of a film by the Polish director, namely "Cul de sac." I thought it wise to revisit some of Polanski's works (which are not lacking in my DVD collection) and yet, more than the previously mentioned title, I still found "Repulsion" truly fascinating today, Polanski's first film shot outside of Poland and dating back to 1965.

In this film, the cornerstones of Polanski's tragic and pessimistic view of reality are already well defined, following the vicissitudes of Carole Ledoux, a young manicurist working in a beauty salon in London, until the tragic end of the story.

Carole could be a completely normal girl if it weren't for a series of her own complexes that make her a psychologically unresolved subject: not only shy and clumsy, but decidedly asocial to the point of being androphobic (to the extreme consequences). Complicating the situation is the fact that she shares the apartment with her sister Helene, whose character is diametrically opposed, extroverted and libertine in her relations with the opposite sex, enough to bring home her lover (a married man). This situation bothers the protagonist, who can't even stand the personal belongings of that man. Neither does her social life provide stimulation for Carole: courted in vain by Colin, a young man with impeccable manners, she finds no satisfaction at work and continues to show herself shy towards others and inclined to luxuriate in states of hallucinatory separation from the surrounding world.

The turning point of the situation occurs when Helene and the lover leave for a short vacation in Italy. Left alone, Carole's fragile mental balance irretrievably cracks. Increasingly distracted and unreliable at work to the point of being fired, the protagonist resigns herself to voluntary seclusion at home, living in a hallucinatory condition haunted by nightmares of sexual violence against her, oily hands emerging from the walls to grab her, immense and spreading cracks in the walls, ceilings tending to crush her and so on degenerating, in a general state of neglect and domestic filth. Unfortunately, those careless people who manage to enter the house will pay the price: first the suitor Colin, who, declaring his feelings to the young woman, is killed with a candlestick. Subsequently, the landlord, arriving to collect the monthly rent and killed with razors for attempting to abuse Carole, who is later found, upon the sister and her lover's return, lifeless due to starvation.

Perhaps Polanski's most frightening and distressing work, it stands out for an expressionistic directorial style, employing various techniques such as the use of wide-angle lenses, depth of field and creating an emotional flow in which the daily reality transfigures into a sick dream and imagination of the protagonist (a young Catherine Deneuve with superlative acting on the same level as Bunuel's famous "Belle de jour" shot in 1967).

And already in "Repulsion" the major themes of Polanski's cinema emerge. In particular, the dialectic between external space (theater of intense daily reality) and internal space where the characters, deluding themselves into finding some respite, reveal latent and disruptive issues (in this film Carole expresses her dark and insane side). Then the Polish director introduces disturbing elements into the representation, highlighting the ambiguous nature of objects which, as familiar as they may seem, can prove to be foreign and a source of danger upon closer inspection, as well as disturbance. In the case of this film, it's the entire apartment, pervaded by signs of decay and death (foods like potatoes and skinned rabbits now putrefied) where much of the action unfolds, gradually becoming a symbol of a tormented consciousness (Carole's) living immersed in a psychotic and insane reality (for her it is so, evidently as a result of an unresolved subconscious trauma from the past).

The film still has a great visual impact today and shows us how Polanski was certainly influenced by Hitchcock's thriller cinema but with a greater expressionist visionary charge and a fundamental differentiation. Indeed, in Hitchcock's cinema, daily life is disrupted by the irruption of the irrational and in the battle between Good and Evil it is the former that prevails (the only exception being the film "The Birds"). For Polanski, on the other hand (equipped with a pessimistic existential view, typically Polish), the eternal duel between Good and Evil ultimately resolves in favor of the latter. Poor Carole will not succeed, therefore, in saving herself from her demons and will succumb exactly as happens to other characters in Polanski’s films.

And as much as this philosophy may appear bitter to us, by observing the surrounding reality carefully, I do not feel like entirely disagreeing with him.